Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine

This weeks choice is

"Sybella arrives at the
convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve
Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. Naturally
skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, the convent views
Sybella as one of their most dangerous weapons.

But those
assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a
life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are
terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. And while
Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He
must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally
imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something
other than vengeance to live for?"

This heart-pounding sequel to
Grave Mercy serves betrayal, treachery, and danger in equal measure,
bringing readers back to fifteenth century Brittany and will keep them
on the edge of their seats. - From Goodreads

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

I always swore blind that I would never buy any sort of e-reader, vehemently! I remember having long conversations about them with my mother about how much we loved books as well as reading, and that poking a bit of plastic just wasn't the same! I wavered a bit when authors started doing novellas only available online or as a Kindle book so I downloaded the Kindle app for PC whilst holding firm to my stance on never actually buying one.

Then Amazon did something that got to me... They released the Kindle Fire HD, where not only could you read but you could watch movies, check email, tweet, play games - just about anything you could do on the PC. I must have been brainwashed because yesterday morning this arrived!

And inside was this...

For the last 24 hours I have tweeted, played Mahjong and Hangman, downloaded Goodreads & LOVEfilm, watched Despicable Me and added film after film to my watchlist! The only thing I haven't done is read a book on it, I still haven't decided what's going to be the first 'proper' Kindle book I buy.

Leave a comment with what book you think I should buy and you could win a brand new copy of The Gathering Dark by Leigh Bardugo (aka Shadow & Bone)

I'll ship internationally and choose a winner on February 6 so start leaving suggestions!

Sunday, 27 January 2013

So, this week we're switching things up a bit and joining in with Stacking The Shelves hosted by the lovely Tynga's Reviews. This is a continuation of last weeks IMM where I forgot to take pictures of more than half the books I've received over the last 3 months!

Yes, I bought a lot of books recently. No, this doesn't include the 60 or so library books I've had since October. No, I haven't read the majority of them yet even though I've had some since October... This is why I'm on a book diet! Having said that, yesterday I bought something I thought I never would. More on that in the next couple of days though, and I'm fully prepared for all the "You hypocrite!" comments.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Waiting On Wednesday, where we put the spotlight on upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating, is hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine

My first choice of 2013 is

'R.H. Ragona’s Circus of
Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue
Penglass – remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone – are wonders
beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems
possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic
and knowledge of the vanished Chimeras is still there. It’s a place
where anyone can hide.

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of
a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers
climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the
streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes
the circus’s rising star. But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of
their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the
mysteries of Ellada.' - From Goodreads

I fell in love with the cover of this book, luckily for me the plotline sounds so good too!

Sunday, 20 January 2013

IMM is hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren
and gives everyone an opportunity to showcase new books received during
the week, whether they're bought, borrowed or the dreaded download!

So, it's been a while since I've done one of these, September last year in fact and I think since then I've probably bought over 50 books! I know, I know! I have a habit and I need to break it :) Anyway, I took a picture of what I thought was most of what I've bought recently but turns out it's not even close so next week will be another catch-up/birthday special.

The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater

Unspoken - Sarah Rees Brennan

Darkness Before Dawn - J. A. London

Incarnation - Emma Cornwall

Undeadly - Michele Vail

Something Strange And Deadly - Susan Dennard

Ten - Gretchen McNeil

The Diviners - Libba Bray

Dead On The Delta - Stacey Jay

Iron-Hearted Violet - Kelly Barnhill

Under My Hat - Neil Gaiman

Alice In Zombieland - Gena Showalter

Starling - Lesley Livingston

Velveteen - Daniel Marks

Days Of Blood And Starlight - Laini Taylor

Come back next week for the rest of the haul and to find out whether I actually get any books for my birthday! What did you get recently?

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Welcome to the Dreaming Of Books Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am A Reader Not A Writer and Martha's Bookshelf! As this giveaway finishes on my birthday I figure it would only be right for me to pick two winners! So, there will be two winners who can each choose one paperback up to the value of £10/$15 - from the Book Depository as long as they deliver to your country - find the list here. The hop runs from January 18 through til midnight on January 24 - better known as my birthday! All you have to do is follow the instructions in Rafflecopter below and you could be the lucky winner!

Monday, 14 January 2013

So, Bout Of Books 6.0 is over and I think on the reading front I did quite well, on the other things - Twitter, chat, challenges etc. I failed miserably. At least I know better for next time what my limits are and not to arrange to leave the house at all!

So here's a brief summary of everything I managed -

Total number of books finished - 6

Total number of pages read - 2123

Challenges completed - 3

Number of blogs visited - 17

Books read -

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

Necklace Of The Gods by Alison Goodman

Mortal Kiss by Alice Moss

Fool's Silver by Alice Moss

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

Splintered - A. G. Howard

Books started -

Follow Me Down by Julie Hearn

The Land Of Decoration by Grace McCleen

The Hundred-Year-Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Broken - A. E. Rought

Reviews written - 3! Reviews will go up over the next few days hopefully, I'm away but they are scheduled to appear.

Movies watched - Les Miserables (beautiful, everyone should see it! The singing is not perfect but I'm still thinking about the movie 3 days later.)

Thanks to everyone who took part and/or arranged Bout Of Books and see you next time!

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Probably not the best challenge to enter because it encourages me to buy books, only 12, but that's still buying books! I could be good and stick to my library only rule or my birthday money only rule but where's the fun in that? Hosted by Uniflame Creates the aim is to read a book a month from your wishlist as long as it was added before January 1 2013.

The Hundred-Year-Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

If I can finish those four books then I'll beat my reading target but I'm still failing on the social side of BoB! Yesterday was pretty much a write-off as I was out watching Les Miserables (which, by the way, is amazing and oh so emotional!) and having dinner with a friend & my dad. I shall try and catch up on some blog hopping this afternoon along with a challenge from today, hopefully followed by an evening of reading.

In order to work my way through the ridiculous amount of books I own I have signed up for quite a few challenges - mainly as I can read a lot of my books for more than one challenge ;)

The first one I've signed up for is

Hosted by Bookish Ardour I've gone for Buried level as it will be no problem for me to read between 135 and 200 books from my shelves, in fact I could probably double that and still not run out of books!

As I sign up for other challenges I'll probably do a master post of sorts for progress. What this also means is that 'll be giving away a lot of the books I read so keep checking back if you'd like to win books this year :)

Although I've finished four books I'm failing completely on the social side of Bout Of Books! I've entered two challenges(although only one was on time), tweeted a few times about my progress and visited five, maybe six blogs total rather than the five a day I wanted to do! So, today will be focused on blog visiting and a bit of reading and tomorrow will be interrupted as I'm going to see Les Miserables with a friend then for dinner afterwards.

I'm giving away my copy of Mortal Kiss by Alice Moss so if anyone wants it leave a comment (quite happy to post just about anywhere) and I'll pick someone at the end of Bout Of Books!

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Turn to page 48 of your current book, or 48% if you're using an e-reader.

Take the first complete sentence on that page and copy it.

Now you're going to continue the story! Ignoring the real plot or anything else you know about that book, add fournew sentences of your very own. You can morph the plot completely, kill everybody off or go off on a huge tangent - anything goes!

I've just started Bloodlines by Richelle Mead so I haven't quite reached page 48 yet. Here's the first complete sentence -

I glared after him - though it had been kind of funny - and nudged Keith towards the door.

And here's my sentences!

You wouldn't think someone suddenly growing wings could be funny but I wasn't the only one trying not to laugh.

Petrov whirled back round and pointed at each of us in turn and started to open his mouth but before he could say anything, his newly sprouted wings took on a life of their own.

Not only that but they began to change color - flashing through the rainbow, faster and faster.

There was a bright flash, a the smell of peonies flooded the air and his wings clashed against the door causing a hail of pink dust to envelop everyone in the room.

Check out Booking In Heels for more entries and tomorrow there will be an update post on how miserably I'm doing!

Covers are sometimes the most important thing about a book, a good cover can make us buy a bad book and a bad cover can make us miss out on one of the best books of the year! I don't have a lot of favorite covers but the ones I do love include -

Monday, 7 January 2013

Welcome to the Faeries & Fantasy Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am A Reader Not A Writer and The Mod Podge Bookshelf! Up for grabs is a fantasy book of your choice (featuring faeries or not!) - up to the value of £10/$15 - from the Book Depository as long as they deliver to your country - find the list here. The hop runs from January 8 through til midnight on January 14. All you have to do is follow the instructions in Rafflecopter below and you could be the lucky winner!

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Talk about jumping straight in the deep end! Here's the first challenge I signed up for and as it starts tomorrow I really need to get this done!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender
and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that
begins 12:01am Monday, January 7th and runs through Sunday, January 13th
in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and
the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of
books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand
prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 6.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

Saturday, 5 January 2013

A huge thanks to Lori from Imagination Designs for making The Bookish Outsider look so pretty and for giving me something to look forward to. This has been a few months in the making and after my mum died I wasn't even sure I would start blogging again but this gave me the kick-start I needed to slowly get back into it.

So, coming soon on the newly revamped Bookish Outsider - more giveaways, challenges, reviews and lots of book chat!